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Thursday, 2 July 2015

Black Tea in Controlling Diabetes

Tea is already known as a useful and healthy
daily beverage, rich in antioxidants, source of immunity and a great drink for
refreshing the mind, body and the mood. Researchers have now come to this
conclusion that tea, especially black tea has such useful components in it
which can be used in controlling diabetes. So, with this new finding, a new
benefit of the beverage gets added to its list of qualities.

Tea is also being found to have antihypertensive
properties, for which it has today turned into a necessary health drink for
everybody at this age of pollution, hustle and bustle and busy day schedules.
The much needed immunity, mind and body boosting energy and the refreshment of
the brain is derived right from a cup of black tea and this makes it an
essential drink for everybody, irrespective of the urban or rural lifestyle.

The scientists from the Tianjin Key Laboratory
in China have tested the polysaccharide levels of green, oolong and black teas
to see if there is any beneficial value for diabetes in these types of teas. As
Polysaccharides is a type of carbohydrate that includes starch and cellulose
and this may benefit diabetes patients because it helps in retard absorption of
glucose.

The researchers could see that of the three
types of teas, black tea is the one that has the most glucose-inhibiting
properties and the polysaccharides level in it has the highest scavenging
effect on free radicals. Such free radicals are involved in the onset of
diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. This indicates that the black
tea has great medicinal value is helpful in controlling the diabetes along with
also working as a preventive force against cancer and arthritis.

Lead researcher Haixia Chen said, “Many efforts
have been made to search for effective glucose inhibitors from natural
materials. There is a potential for exploitation of black tea polysaccharide in
managing diabetes.”

The research details are published in the
Journal of Food Science, a journal by the Institute of Food Technologists.